Troubled Waters: Land Reclamation and Rising Tensions in the South China Sea

The arena of a number of competing territorial claims – including from China, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Taiwan – the South China Sea is at the core of converging regional interests in the Asia-Pacific region. Encompassing an area through which 40 percent of the world’s trade passes, the sea is home to rich fishing areas, potentially vast undersea oil and gas deposits, and represents a critical flashpoint of power projection in Asia. The Chinese government has long stated it owns most of the reefs and islands in the South China Sea and has asserted rights to most of the sea itself. This has enhanced Chinese military potential and, China presumably hopes, asserted its sovereignty on the reefs and islands in the sea. Satellite imagery shows mobile-artillery vehicles, harbours, military buildings and airstrips added to newly man-made islands in contentious waters, intensifying concerns about Beijing’s territorial ambitions. China insists its construction activity is for the international common good: search and rescue; disaster; meteorology; conservation; and so on. Yet foreign defence officials believe the purpose is military. The result has been increased tensions and frequent incidents in which Chinese coastal defence forces and fishermen from smaller countries have clashed in the sea. Confrontation looms, not just with Beijing’s Asian neighbours but also with the United States, as President Barack Obama’s Asia pivot could force an inevitable clash between a rising China and the world’s preeminent superpower.